


Keep the Enemy Closer

by likehandlingroses



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-10
Updated: 2016-02-10
Packaged: 2018-05-19 11:30:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5965738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likehandlingroses/pseuds/likehandlingroses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cruella and Ursula's months of companionship have created little more than confusion for the pair of them. However, an accident in the Enchanted Forest forces them into a deeper understanding of themselves and each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keep the Enemy Closer

Cruella pulled her oversized coat back onto her shoulders and shivered. This was the largest cave they’d seen yet, and it was already proving to be the coldest. After a full day’s worth of spelunking, Cruella could feel the blisters on her feet. But her companion was tireless, and it was all Cruella could do to keep up with the blasted witch.

 

In part to slow Ursula down, Cruella attempted to start a conversation.

 

“You know what I think? I think she can have the baby the ordinary way. But she thinks it’ll be less trouble to have an egg, and she’s perfectly happy lying to us so she can get what she wants.”

 

Ursula stopped to look at her, disdain on her face.

 

“You just figured that out now?”

 

Before she could answer, Ursula was on her way again, leaving Cruella to trot behind her, breathless and confused. She’d never had any trouble reading people. Some were more difficult than others, of course. But after months of travelling together (and not a few instances of what might be termed intimate companionship), Cruella couldn’t make heads or tentacles of the woman.

 

Worse still, her own motivations had become muddled. Once or twice, she caught herself liking Ursula, wanting to see more of her than she already did.

 

It was frightening, and Cruella would do whatever it took to avoid feeling it ever again. Except, of course, stay away from Ursula. She didn’t dare do that. Some primal part of her whispered that such an action could only make things much, much worse.

 

“And why can’t she look for her own damn cave?” Cruella tried again. “She’s the one who has to use the thing.”

 

Ursula stopped again, though this time she didn’t turn to face Cruella.

 

“Then why don’t you just go back on out and tell her that?”

 

“Well, I would, darling, but-”

 

“Really?” Ursula spun around. “Go ahead. Tell her you’re not going to do it. I dare you.”

 

She was almost smiling. Teasing her. Or perhaps she wasn’t. Perhaps she was entirely serious. Perhaps she really wanted her to go, leave her alone. No, no...she was smiling in her eyes. Or was it a glint of something else?

 

Damn it, she didn’t know.

 

As she stared at Ursula, slack jawed, Ursula rolled back her shoulders and smirked.

 

“That’s what I thought.”

 

She turned back around, only to trip on a rock in her path. She caught herself before her face hit the floor, but only just. Cruella started over to help her, but then remembered that blasted glint and held back.

 

“What’s the matter, darling?” she called out. “Still not used to those legs?”

 

One of Ursula’s tentacles shot out and twisted around Cruella’s ankle, toppling her over. Ursula, now nearly to her feet, chuckled. Cruella scrambled to her feet, her cheeks hot. She’d hardly had time to envision a response when she saw Ursula’s eyes widen.

 

“Get down!”

 

In another second something whooshed just over Cruella’s head, nearly knocking her down a second time.

 

“What the-?” she looked up and saw a dragon, only the second she’d ever come across. It was bigger than Mal, bright green with white horns. It shot up to the cave’s ceiling, and Cruella could tell it was positioning itself for a rapid descent, probably right at them.

 

“Do something!” Ursula screamed. Cruella whispered the first thing that came to her and watched her magic envelope the cave. The second it hit the dragon, the creature shot out of the top of the cave, smashing the ceiling to bits. Cruella had opened her mouth to make some declaration of success when she realized the gaping hole was causing a domino effect, and they were soon likely to be crushed.

 

“Oh, _fuck_ you!” Ursula cried out.

 

Ursula dragged Cruella by the arm into a reinforced crevice in the far wall, just large enough for the two of them. The rocks crashing around them kept them both silent, but Cruella could hear Ursula’s rage across the few inches that separated them. The rubble settled, and the top half of the crevice remained open to the rest of the cave. However, it wouldn’t be large enough to get through, and they didn’t dare risk creating a bigger problem

 

“You idiot,” Ursula said, after the two of them silently assessed the damage.

 

Cruella glared at Ursula. “What else was I supposed to do?”

 

“Put it to sleep! Send it out of the entrance! Make it not want to eat us! Actually, anything but sending it through the fucking roof!”

 

“Calm down, darling. Maleficent is just outside. She can get us out,” Cruella said, though privately she wondered if that were true. Ursula echoed her doubt.

 

“Unless she saw it happen, decided she can just leave us for dead, and is going to find someone else to get her a cave,” Ursula glared at Cruella. “Maybe someone who won’t destroy it!”

 

“But we saved her life,” Cruella replied. “That has to mean something.”

 

“First of all, _I_ saved her life. Second, she doesn’t care about anyone but herself and that baby. And why should she? What good has being a hero ever done for anyone?”

 

“Well, I suppose there must be something to it. Or else they wouldn’t go on doing it.”

 

For the first time since the accident, Ursula looked at Cruella with something other than outright disgust.

 

“You thinking about changing career paths?” she said, almost amused.

 

“No, no...I’m not built for that sort of thing. But maybe some people are.”

 

“They’re called fools,” Ursula’s said, her voice terse. “Sometimes they’re lucky enough to never have to realize that, but that’s all they are.”

 

“Someone’s bitter,” Cruella said, tilting her head to the side. “Do tell.”

 

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Ursula said, shuffling forward ever so slightly. “Just get all my secrets so you can store them up. That’s what you do, isn’t it?”

 

Cruella laughed, though she realized she had backed up uncomfortably against the wall.

 

“Goodness, you are touchy! Of course that’s what I do. Doesn’t mean I don’t like a good story. Though maybe it’s not a very good one at all.”

 

Ursula raised an eyebrow. “Does that work on people?”

 

Cruella pressed her palms against the back wall, feeling one of the rock’s jagged edges scratch her skin. “Does what work?”

 

“That thing where you act like you don’t care, but really you do...and you think that that’ll trick someone into saying something stupid. The flirting, the sex...and then acting all doe eyed afterwards...really cute stuff like that,” Ursula searched Cruella’s face. “You know what I’m talking about? Good. We’re on the same page.”

 

Most of the time, Cruella found Ursula’s royal pretensions silly; a Queen of Sea was an easy thing to laugh at on dry land. But there were times, like now, when she bore the unmistakable mark of a ruler. Not a kind one, perhaps. But the way she made every word bite without raising her voice, the way her dark eyes could harden into something fierce yet irresistible...she could do and take whatever she wanted.

 

 _Fuck, she’s beautiful._ Cruella bit her lip, half afraid she’d uttered the words out loud.

 

“You know what?” Ursula said, inching back ever so slightly, leaving Cruella still pressed against the wall. “I’ll tell you. We haven’t got anything better to do, and if you can find a way to use it against me...I’ll be impressed. Because I don’t think you’re nearly as good as you think you are.”

 

As Ursula began, she fell into a sort of a trance. In the enclosed space, she somehow managed to look at nothing, and her words were utter so softly sometimes that Cruella found herself leaning forward to catch them.

 

“My mother died when I was a girl. She was killed, actually. But she gave me one thing. Her singing voice. And I treasured it. I sang all the time. I wanted to sing to the world and everyone in it. People used to say that, when I sang, it made things brighter. And I believed them. I thought that if I could leave, I could make people happy. Just me and my voice, curing the world of its ills...I know better now.”

 

She looked Cruella in the eye, then.

 

“People are cons and cheats and they’ll sell you out as soon as they get the chance. Because no one really wants music or love or any of those pretty things. Those are what they settle for because they can’t get what they really want.

 

“And heroes aren’t even smart enough to realize that. Or maybe they’re lying to themselves. I don’t know.”

 

Just then, a rush of air came through the cave, and Maleficent landed, staff in hand. She was just visible through the still open portion of the crevice, and Cruella could tell she was displeased.

 

“Nobody’s ever accused you two of being the cleverest witches in the realm, but I’d at least thought you’d be capable of examining a cave without bringing it to the ground.”

 

* * *

 

 

After the cave, Cruella had to add yet another item to her list of things she must try and never feel again: a physical and almost painful awareness of how far away Ursula was from her at any given moment.

 

She resolved, after the sensation hit her, to ignore it. It would fade.

 

But when Ursula didn’t return to their tent after sunset, Cruella found herself growing concerned. She crept down to the lake, knowing exactly where Ursula would be. Sure enough, there she was: sitting on a smooth and flat rock that faced the sparkling waters.

 

Ursula hardly looked at her as she approached, and Cruella took her non-reaction as invitation to sit down next to her. She perched on the edge of the rock and waited in silence for some minutes. Then an impulse came upon her, and she blurted out the words without giving them a second thought.

 

“So you don’t sing anymore?”

 

Now Ursula turned and really saw her. “What?”

 

“Your voice,” Cruella said. “You don’t sing.”

 

Ursula sighed and looked back out at the water.

 

“No.”

 

“Oh, come now, darling,” Cruella said, tilting her head. “I agree with you on all that hero nonsense. But surely it can’t hurt to sing, even just for yourself?”

 

Ursula’s jaw tensed up and she exhaled deeply before answering.

 

“I can’t.”

 

Cruella swallowed. She wished she hadn’t asked, and yet now she felt compelled to continue.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Someone took my voice,” Ursula’s said, her tone sharp and ragged. “A pirate. It was all I had left of my mother, and he took it.”

 

The words tore at Cruella. Not knowing what else to do, she crossed her arms and looked out at the lake. She considered walking away, but Ursula spoke before she could move.

 

“It’s stupid.”

 

Cruella shook her head, and Ursula frowned.

 

“Are you alright?” she asked.

 

She nodded, looking at her hands, trying to ignore the realization creeping up on her. It came out anyway, hoarse and strange sounding.

 

“I’m sorry, that’s all.”

 

She’d never been sorry for anything in her entire life. Not for very long, anyway. Sorryness seemed like a horrid condition, and she’d been lucky to evade its pull. Only now a sob story about a lost singing voice and a dead mother had those stupid words slipping out.

 

 _I’m sorry._ For what? She certainly hadn’t done anything. It didn’t make any sense. All these wretched emotions were going to be the death of her, she knew it.

 

Panicked, Cruella looked at Ursula. She watched her face fall into confusion, then gradually soften.

 

“Thank you,” she said.

And then, just for that moment, it didn’t matter.


End file.
